Climate-focused deeptech start-up Ecozen raises $25 mn from Nuveen, others

Pune-based Ecozen which develops climate-smart deeptech solutions has secured $25 million in a fresh funding round led by Nuveen, the Chicago-headquartered asset manager owned by US pension fund TIAA and Dare Ventures, the venture capital arm of Coromandel International.

The round, involving a mix of equity and debt capital, saw participation from Export-Import Bank of India (India EXIM Bank), and existing investors Caspian and Hivos-Triodos Fonds. The debt portion was provided by Maanaveeya Development and Finance, Oxyzo, Northern Arc group, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank.

Ecozen’s early investors Omnivore and IFA made partial exits in this round.

Founded by IIT Kharagpur alumni Devendra Gupta, Prateek Singhal and Vivek Pandey, Ecozen develops climate-smart deeptech solutions for motor controls, IoT, and energy storage. Leveraging the tech stack, it has built products for the agricultural sector including solar-powered pump controller Ecotron and solar-based cold storage solution Ecofrost. The company claims these solutions have helped generate over one billion units of clean energy (kWh), saved over 20,000 metric tons of food loss and reduced over one million tons of GHG emissions.

The company is currently expanding its product ranges beyond the agricultural sector to energy storage, motor controls, IoT and analytics. Ecozen estimates the market size for its innovative technology stacks in India to grow to $25 billion by 2025.

“As we expand beyond India and agriculture, we will continue to focus on profitable growth and sustainable technology solutions. Ecozen will aggressively expand production capacity and product range,” Devendra Gupta, CEO and Co-Founder of Ecozen said.

Nuveen, a pioneer in global impact investing, said it seeks out companies that mitigate climate change, build resilience to its impacts, and provide high quality, affordable products and services to the low-income consumer segment.

“Ecozen has built products that do all three simultaneously – replacing diesel water pumps and fossil-fuel dependent coolers, improving drought resiliency for smallholder farms, and increasing farmer incomes. With Ecozen’s proven expertise in delivering climate-smart technology solutions, while maintaining profitability, together we will exponentially grow their impact globally and beyond agriculture,” said Rekha Unnithan, Managing Director and Co-Head of Private Equity Impact Investing at Nuveen.

The need for sustainable solutions has never been greater. From renewable energy to sustainable agriculture, Indian start-ups are poised to lead the charge in developing innovative solutions that can help mitigate the effects of climate change and build a more sustainable future.  Enzia Ventures, a modernized mid-market venture capital, recently predicted that Indian is likely to attract climate-tech investments to the tune of $20 billion by 2030.

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